N Ramaswamy, 77, Bengaluru, guides and counsels patients in hospitals

 
Subhojit met N Ramaswamy in 2000, when he was admitted to Baptist Hospital in Bengaluru as a 13 year-old for arms amputation following electrocution. Today, 17 years later, Subhojit is married and employed. Through the years, Ramaswamy has been a constant in his life, from buying a Walkman and audio tapes to getting him artificial limbs, rail travel concession card and even a job as a graphic designer. For many like him, who reached Bengaluru hospitals in distress, Ramaswamy has been an emotional anchor. “I don’t feel like missing a single day of this,” says the sprightly 77 year-old, who is on hospital rounds by 9 am. Though post-retirement offers beckoned, this senior design engineer from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) decided to follow his heart and enrol as a volunteer to take care of cancer patients in Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology. Today, Ramaswamy is a familiar smiling face in the corridors of Kidwai, NIMHANS, Baptist and M S Ramaiah Hospital. Fluent in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, he assists patients with registration, escorts them to doctors and labs and follows up on therapies and treatments besides consoling and supporting the families of the terminally ill and buying them tea and snacks from the hospital canteen. This Good Samaritan also seeks out people in distress, like he did in the case of the Hussain siblings from Raichur, who suffered from Huntington’s disease, a rare genetic neurological disorder. Having read about them in a newspaper, he hunted them down and ensured they got a below poverty line (BPL) card, enabling them to seek free government subsistence and medical aid. For Ramaswamy, the rewards are not monetary. “Most of them form a lifelong bond with me,” he points out. They keep in touch, updating him about their health status and their lives. “I’m nothing more than a facilitator,” he insists humbly. “I just link the patient and the assistance.” For instance, when he heard of an international organisation distributing wheelchairs for free, he took one of his paraplegic patients to secure one. Subhojit sums it up succinctly: “The humanity Ramaswamy sir exhibits is rare these days.”

—Srirekha Pillai

You can contact Ramaswamy on (0) 9945973585

Photo: N Ramaswamy
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
August 2017